Tamberav Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Nice! Do you use any bio media in the filter? Could use some or rock if it doesn't. Might end up with a pod bloom in there with all the food. Mine exploded with how much I'm feeding the ruby and clingfish in mine. 1 Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 Yup! I actually moved over a filter sponge from my 20 long. Should be enough, but I'll watch ammonia/nitrite just in case. I plan to do pretty frequent WC's anyway. I'mma be 100% honest... I'm almost kicking myself now. I'm happy I'm doing this, I'm enjoying it and am glad to be giving this guy a chance. But I saw a Ruby Dragonette not long ago and was pretty shocked at the color and attitude he had. He was pretty thicc (notice I used two c's - he was CHUNKY), but I passed him up due to the reputation dragonettes have. Maybe this'll give me the courage to try one one day! 2 Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 The Ruby's have been a lot easier for me then the typical mandy. They seem to come in healthier and ready to take frozen easily. Scooters in general seem to take to prepared foods better. Perhaps they are eating at the wholesalers and LFS. Our LFS gets 20+ in at a time and almost all of them are sausages. 1 Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 Noted... that'll have to be a separate tank for another day! I'll keep it in mind, though. The Spotted Mandarins are beautiful, and Green Mandarins are more so (IMO) - but the Ruby's are just stunning. One thing I thought of for feeding a variety of foods is decapsulated brine shrimp eggs. I know that some people feed them to small fish, or picky eaters, and was wondering if it'd be worth it to try some of those. I've decapsulated them before, and am pretty confident on the process of how to do it. I guess there's no harm in trying - unless you've got a reason not to. Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 9, 2019 Author Share Posted July 9, 2019 Had decent results with the baby brine. Good feeding response! However, my hatch rate was probably somewhere under 10% after 40 hours. Gonna bubble overnight one more time, but I'm not seeing these eggs being viable. He's still loving bloodworms, and he seemed to really like baby brine. Which brings me to a few new ideas: Live blackworms/whiteworms might be MUCH more nutritious for him than bloodworms. Think it might be worth it to try and get some? Perhaps hatching BBS is going to be the key... in which case, I think I'll need a better batch of eggs. I think I'll try decapsulating a batch and seeing if he takes to them - quicker, more nutritious, and easier to feed than hatching brine. 1 Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 11, 2019 Author Share Posted July 11, 2019 Happy to say that I ended up with around a 50% hatch rate after leaving it to bubble a bit more. Dumped in close to 1000, and let the pump sit off for 4 hours on a timer. Came back, and there's not a shrimp in sight. I guess we had good success! I'm hatching more now. I think I may have found a good source for pods, locally - I'll have to check it out, but if it turns out to be solid, it might be a game-changer. 3 Quote Link to comment
A.Berry Posted July 12, 2019 Share Posted July 12, 2019 I've been keeping an eye on this thread. I love mandarins, but have never been brave enough to keep one, I'm really glad to see its eating! 2 Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 13, 2019 Author Share Posted July 13, 2019 Thanks! Me too. He's starting to eat more readily - not taking so long before going after each morsel of food. He's still not keen on mysis, sadly. I've got pods paid for at the local shop. Should be in tomorrow morning! 1 Quote Link to comment
Tamberav Posted July 13, 2019 Share Posted July 13, 2019 I feel these are worth noting... I plan to order some to try at some point. https://www.aquaculturenurseryfarms.com/liquid-coral-food-and-fish-food/coral-feast-ova/ https://aqualabaquaria.com/products/fish-eggs-lrs 1 Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 16, 2019 Author Share Posted July 16, 2019 Okay, so the past few days have been frustrating. The pods I got were DOA. I got them home, opened up the bottle, and it smelled TERRIBLE. The store had done their part, I think it was just an old bottle. Got a refund, and was told that the next shipment of that product would be two weeks. FML. I picked up some oyster eggs, and while he does perk up when I feed them, it's hard to tell if he's truly eating any. He pecks at the rock and the glass a bit, but it could just be normal mandarin behavior, too. I'll keep trying it and see what happens. The Caulerpa Racemosa started growing onto the silicone in the tank, so I emptied that tank out and am leak-testing it outside. The mandarin now resides in a 10 gallon, where he'll stay for quite a while. I've got some ideas rolling around my head, if I could only get this guy some good food. 1 Quote Link to comment
GlassHouse Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 I've had good success with decapsulated brine shrimp eggs that are dry. You feed them directly to the tank, no hatching. 1 Quote Link to comment
MrsK Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 Have you thought about having the pods shipped to you instead of relying on your LFS? Podyourreef.com has a good selection and their prices are pretty fair. @Pod Your Reef Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share Posted July 17, 2019 I had considered trying decapped brine, but decided against it as I could find very little info on whether or not mandarins tended to take it. Thanks! I have considered having the pods shipped to me, but it turned out that it was quite a bit cheaper to buy locally - prices were identical, but shipping jacked it up a bit. The store is very highly rated, and this seems to be isolated - they had only had the pods in for like a day before I got them, so I'm pretty sure that bottle shipped dead. Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 17, 2019 Author Share Posted July 17, 2019 No luck with the decapped brine. He might have eaten a few, but most were definitely ignored. Quote Link to comment
Chris's Fishes Posted July 22, 2019 Author Share Posted July 22, 2019 I'd love to update you guys on some stuff, but to be honest, there's not much going on. I got my hands on some pods, and put about 1/4 of the bottle into the tank - I think he got quite a few of them. I seeded my tank with about 1/2 of what was left, and put the rest into the fridge. If I'm being super, super honest, I'm considering taking him to a store that I know can take care of him. It's in Lexington, KY, and is called Ocean Wonders. It's where I got my pods from. They have an awesome store, seem very knowledgeable, and I think they might be a good candidate for taking him off my hands. I haven't asked yet, though. I just don't want to slowly kill him. I do want to keep him, but if I'm being super honest, the timing sucks. I'm working full-time, getting ready to go to college, taking care of other tanks, and that's impacting how much I'm doing for this guy. So, I'm going to give him a bit more time, but I think I'm about to throw in the towel and donate him to get him to someone who can provide. There'll always be time later to try my luck with one that isn't starving, and possibly already trained to take frozen. Plus, I'd have more time to plan out what to do. 2 Quote Link to comment
blasterman Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 If I lived closer I would take him. I have a 20 long that is literally crawling with copepods. The little brown ones that mandis love. 2 Quote Link to comment
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